Around the world, women and girls of African Descent continue to face the double burden of racism and sexism, often navigating systemic barriers that hinder their development and violate their rights, according to the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA.

Last year, the UN General Assembly voted to recognise 25 July as the International Day for Women and Girls of African Descent as they continue to face multiple and overlapping forms of discrimination, manifesting in higher rates of poverty, barriers to education, limited access to quality healthcare, and underrepresentation in decision-making.

UNFPA’s “Leave No One Behind" commitment focuses on dismantling systemic barriers and ensuring equal access to rights, services, and health outcomes for all women and girls.

UN News’s Emma Trager-Lewis sat down with Patricia DaSilva, UNFPA Senior Programme Adviser and Global Coordinator for “Leave No One Behind” to discuss how the agency is working to uplift women and girls across the African diaspora. 

Over one billion people live in slums and informal settlements globally, with that number expected to triple by 2050. And yet, in official data and national censuses, these people are often invisible.  

Denis Jobin, a senior evaluation officer at UN children’s agency, UNICEF, visited multiple slums across four countries in order to change this, collecting quantitative and qualitative data to illuminate the challenges informal settlements face.  

UN News’ Naima Sawaya sat down with Mr. Jobin following a side-event at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York to better understand the conditions of people living in informal settlements.  

Regulations to govern the exploration and extraction of rare earth minerals on the seabed of international waters are being hammered out by the UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) despite the reported decision by the US government to go “alone”.

The demand for rare earth minerals, which are needed to make batteries and other technology, is on the increase globally. Jamaica-based ISA is a specialised agency mandated to regulate the deep seabed of international waters, which makes up over 50 per cent of the world’s underwater surface area.

Its 170 Member States are developing a code of conduct to mine for minerals in a sustainable and equitable way which benefits all nations, not just technologically advanced ones. Eileen Travers spoke to the organization’s Secretary-General, Leticia Carvalho, and began by asking her about the status of the code.

Read our explainer on ISA and why it matters now here.

Greater political will is needed to change patriarchal norms in the face of the backlash against gender equality, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council has said.

Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development, participated in a major meeting at the UN in New York to review progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many of which are off track as the 2030 deadline approaches.

Gender equality, SDG 5, was among a handful of Goals in the spotlight at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), which concludes on Wednesday.

UN News’ Mehboob Khan spoke to Mr. Deva, who began by explaining why the SDGs are at risk. 

• UNFPA warns of ‘catastrophic birth outcomes’ in Gaza 

• Nigeria: WFP aid for 1.3 million at risk of ending,

• $10 million allocation to support Afghans returning from Iran  

Amid reports of a fragile calm in Syria’s Sweida governorate, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed on Monday that it is helping to provide assistance to those displaced by the violence – and the country’s many returnees.

The development follows deadly clashes between Bedouin and Druze communities in Sweida that has drawn in Syrian government forces and the Israeli military, highlighting the regional implications of unresolved tensions inside Syria.

With more on the crisis and the challenges facing Syrians returning home after well over a decade of civil war, here’s WFP’s head of emergency communications, Jonathan Dumont, with UN News’s Daniel Johnson in Geneva. 

Natalia Kanem, the head of the UN sexual and reproductive rights agency, UNFPA, is stepping down, after a tumultuous eight-year tenure that has seen her, and her colleagues, uphold the rights of women and girls in the face of a global pandemic, ideological pushback and political instability.

Ahead of her departure, Mita Hosali from UN News sat down with Dr. Kanem and looked back at some of the key achievements of UNFPA during her time in charge and reflect on the kinds of support that young women will need from the agency in years to come.

When Aideé Zamorano González had her second child, her boss and colleagues all asked when she would leave her job in Mexico’s automotive industry. Presumably, now that she had two boys to care for, she would stop working.

Ms. Zamorano González didn’t want to quit, but she did leave her job to found Mamá Godín, a social enterprise which evaluates care policies in private sector businesses and advocates for new frameworks to better support mothers in the workplace.

UN News’s Naima Sawaya sat down with Ms. Zamorano González a day after she took part in a panel at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, underway at UN Headquarters in New York.

Collective action can take many forms – cooperatives, for example. But for the millions of youth engaged in agrifood systems, sometimes Instagram or TikTok is more effective.

Of the 1.3 billion people aged 15 to 24, 44 per cent rely on agrifood systems for employment. But their unique challenges are not always represented, and their voices are not always heard. This is why collective action is so important. 

A recent report on youth in agrifood systems went further than just encouraging collective action – it actually consulted youth stakeholders in the editing of the report, as Lauren Phillips, a deputy director at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told UN News’s Naima Sawaya – as the UN’s top political forum on sustainable development continues.